Call a spade a spade

I used to get very upset at the notion of defects

I would try to avoid referring to defects as defects

I would use all sorts of other terms, e.g. defence mechanisms, traits, etc.

I would downplay them: traits that used to serve me

Note that they never served me

If they had, they would not have been defects

The programme encourages me to look at the truth squarely

This means that, if something is a defect, I must say it is and not dress it up as something else

If a habit of belief, thought, or behaviour is unhelpful or harmful to me or others, it is a defect

Uncover, discover, and discard

Why the reluctance to call a spade a spade?

Several reasons:

The chief reason, hurt pride: I did not like the notion that there was anything wrong with me

Ironically, I was right

Why?

There is nothing wrong with the carpenter if one of his tools is ill-suited to the job or broken

If I have a thousand defects, there is still nothing wrong with me

There is something wrong with my belief, thought, or behaviour

It does not serve the carpenter to present the broken hammer as anything other than one

It serves the carpenter to recognise the hammer is broken

And mend or discard it

The more defects I find in me, the better

The more I find, the more can be discarded

In inventory I discover not everything I am but everything I am not

That is why there should be no coyness

No dancing around the truth

Face and be rid of what blocks me

From what I actually am